It’s pretty simple, really. I learned all 87 rules in the NHL 2009 – 2010 rulebook in 107 days leading up to the Winter Olympics on February 12, 2010. Since then I've covered the entire IIHF Rulebook and I'm now up to the NHLPA's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Sure, I tried finding non-hockey related hobbies, but it's hard to find book clubs that want to read every hockey book ever written.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

When In Doubt, Follow the Lead of the 4th Overall Pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

The game: LA vs. Tampa Bay.

Why I chose it: This time, it's honkin' tall French Captain and Slovenian alternate Captain staring each other down the barrel of a hockey gun. Plus, Guy Boucher looks like he's going to eat a Ref for dinner, if Steve Downie doesn't beat him to it.

I'm following Ryan Johansen's lead: When his mom told me where he got his ambition and drive for success, she told me simply that growing up he was "always, always, always" about hockey.

I'm following his fine example this weekend as I indulge in the last of a 6-game homestand before the Hawks hit the road: www.oregonlive.com/hawks. On tap this weekend is a game between the Portland Winterhawks (#1 in the U.S. Division) and the Red Deer Rebels (owned by Brent Sutter, #2 in the Central Division). Followed on Saturday by a matchup with the Everett Silvertips. Stay tuned.

About Me

I’m Samantha and I’m a hockey addict. It wasn’t always this way. Until I was 12, I’d never even seen a hockey game. I grew up in Arizona, before the Phoenix Coyotes, in the pre-historic era known as the seventies. Enter the eighties, which coincided with the sports event of the century. On February 22, 1980, the United States men’s hockey team defeated the Russians. I was a pre-teen, oblivious to what that game meant, until it interfered in my ability to hang out at the mall. My father had agreed to chauffeur me…after he was done watching the game. I stomped to my room in rebellion. But somewhere in the first period the yelling and stomping overpowered my REO Speedwagon record. So, I relented and the rest is history. As we approach the 30th anniversary of that victory, I have shamefully come to realize I love a game to which I don’t know the rules. 30 years and I don’t even know what a hat trick is -- unacceptable. That, fellow hockey nerds, is coming to an end with this blog.